Republican and Democratic Mayors Call on Washington to Step Back, Start Over & Partner with Mayors to Produce a Health Bill

WASHINGTON, DC—Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 28 at 11 am ET, a bipartisan group of mayors representing the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) will discuss the impact the Senate’s healthcare bill will have on towns and cities across the country – and call for Washington to partner with Mayors to find a better way forward.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh will lead the call, and will be joined by New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, Mesa Mayor John Giles, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley, Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve, Huntington Mayor Stephen Williams, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, and Bangor Mayor Joe Baldacci in calling for Congress to consider the impact this bill will have on Americans, which the Congressional Budget Office has estimated will cause 22 million to lose their health insurance and gut efforts to create strong healthy communities. Mayors will also discuss how the Senate bill will eliminate coverage and treatment for Americans with substance abuse issues, making the fight against the country’s opioid epidemic even more difficult, and how deep cuts to Medicaid will put our country’s most vulnerable at risk and devastate community health and municipal budgets – as clinics and emergency rooms are filled with the addicted, the sick and the uninsured.

At USCM’s Winter Meeting in January 2017, a bipartisan group of mayors sounded the alarm on congressional actions to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The mayors signed a bipartisan letter to Congress outlining their principles for any legislation that would restructure the American healthcare system. On February 22, 2017, USCM launched a ‘Mayors Day of Action on Healthcare’ where mayors nationwide reached out to their members of Congress, authored op-eds, hosted town halls, and took to social media to express their concerns over legislation that would harm millions of their citizens. See here for more information and follow #MayorsStand4All.

Most recently, newly installed USCM President New Orleans’ Mayor Mitch Landrieu, in his Mayors’ Agenda for the Future named access to affordable, high-quality health care a priority for his Presidency. Mayors’ Agenda for the Future, a bipartisan policy agenda and a prescription for leadership that will ensure the safety and security of our communities, fix our crumbling infrastructure, expand our workforce to drive economic growth, and create equitable communities to increase opportunity for all. The mayors believe that health care is not only a right, but is essential for a healthy, caring, and vibrant country.

On Monday, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu was named the organization’s 75th President, and said the “bottom line is that this bill will make us sicker,” and hurt the economy. Landrieu argued that there is a better way, and that Washington should slow down, move beyond partisan politics, and work to find solutions that protect people.